Unorthodox Hilarity: A Study in Raving Rabbids

Michel Ancel, creator of the Rayman franchise and Beyond Good and Evil, has never been one to accept formulas. His need to innovate continues as Rayman Raving Rabbids™ breaks free of the established platformer mold the series has previously enjoyed to embrace a new style of adventure. If you had to nail it down, you'd call it a party game, similar to Fusion Frenzy 2 in design, if not in spirit.

It's a tight fit.

The Invasion
While our limbless hero, Rayman, is lounging on a beach, enjoying some tropical refreshment, the greatest threat to the civilized world executes its carefully planned invasion. Maniacal rabbids, an evil alien breed of bunny, pour into the world from every crook, cranny, and crevice to seize the planet for their own nefarious purposes.

Buyer beware: Rib-busting laughter and
teary-eyed hilarity are likely responses to
even a few moments of play-time.

Caught up in the nightmare of wailing bunnies, Rayman is snatched from his vacation and locked away in an arena to await his grisly fate. Luckily, the rabbids require entertainment, and as long as Rayman is able to do their bidding (disco dancing included), he can bide his time and plan his escape.

Rayman's Makeover
The game is broken up into dozens of different mini-games, designed for swift, challenging gameplay. Among other bizarre challenges, you will find yourself delivering explosive packages, spraying carrot juice into the snorkel masks of juice-addicted bunnies, booting an unfortunate bunny into a soccer goal, and milking uncooperative cows.

They bunnies are not entirely stable.

Mechanical Variety
Like other party games, Rayman Raving Rabbids focuses on offering unique, but easy to grasp mechanics for each of its wildly original mini-games. Here are a few examples:

• Rapidly rotate the left analog stick to build up momentum as you swing a cow around by a chain before tapping A at the right time to hurl it down a field.
• Use classic first-person-shooter controls, right stick and right trigger, to control the western-themed shooter mini-games.
• Rapidly pull the left and right triggers to run in sprinting mini-games.
• The left and right triggers are also used to keep pace during dancing mini-games as you time your moves to the beat of the music, which drives the antics of the watching bunnies.

While each game is simple, the context for each mini-game adds depth, as well as timing and strategy to the game.

Bunnies play dress up.

Vision Control
While every mini-game can be controlled with the Xbox 360™ Wireless Controller, several mini-games also support the Xbox Live® Vision Camera as well, adding a much more physical element to the bunny-based madness. Instead of using the controller, the sprinting games require you to move your hands up and down in front of the camera to control your feet, while the cow-toss game can be controlled by whirling your hand above your head as if throwing a lasso.

If a mini-game supports the Xbox Live Vision Camera, you will notice a camera icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen before the game begins. Simply wave your hand at the logo to initiate camera control. This will also initiate instructions on which gestures control the game.

Rayman Raving Rabbids delights chiefly in two things: Clever design and absurd humor. The marriage of the two makes for densely packed entertainment, as each mini-game struts about with a life and humor all its own. By using the relatively tame Rayman as a foil to the hilariously disturbed bunnies, creator Michel Ancel makes the rabbids the true, and deserving, stars of the show.

Buyer beware: Rib-busting laughter and teary-eyed hilarity are likely responses to even a few moments of play-time. Enjoy your time with the rabbids. I know I did.

Article by Ryan Treit